“I think Marine Le Pen also reached her high water mark in France yesterday. Probably Macron will win.”

The polls show him with a comfortable majority, and I trust their polls more than I do American polls, ahem 🙂

There’s a last minute attempt to leak files against Macron, probably from right wing sources, but nothing’s been verified, so doubt it will affect the election tomorrow. That he’s a banker’s poodle and his wife may have had sex with him when he was an underage student of hers, is so French, may actually help.

I already wrote What’s Up With France to show its deep karmic burden going back centuries. Under its degenerate president Sarkozy it invaded Libya along with Hillary Clinton and David Cameron. The suffering they created has now come back to haunt their respective countries, may they live in interesting times..

The two presidential candidates, Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron, born 5 August 1968 and 21 December 1977, both have flaws. Macron is a globalist banker who’ll push to make France’s economy more in line with Germany but also will dismantle social safety nets. Le Pen is a nationalist but also an Islamophobe. If she’d stuck with populism instead of aligning with right-wing European political parties she’d have done better. Their time has come and gone.

But this is a quick astrological analysis, meant to show what might be, based on the individuals involved. Not, who will win. That’s a fool’s game, and I prefer to look at the choices facing the country, not eventual outcomes here, in this instance.

Macron was born in the Chinese year of the snake, which is very creative and good with complex ideas but can’t stick to one thing. If he loses tomorrow, he will disappear.

Le Pen was born in the year of the monkey, which makes her intelligent and clever. Even if she loses tomorrow, she’ll be around for a long time.

The year of the rooster is good for both, but on the face of things I still think Macron will win. The Obama ‘endorsement’ didn’t harm him.

Uranus transiting over Le Pen’s Saturn in 7th house indicates she’ll lose. Jupiter retrograding past her ascendant into 12th, that the planet of good luck, once ascendant, now is moving backwards into her house of restriction. Pluto opp. her Midheaven which is the public face of Le Pen is almost a guarantee the polls will turn against her.

Transiting Saturn over Macron’s sun in the 11th indicates he will come into a position of great responsibility. He not only has powerful friends in banking (he was a Rothschild bank director) but his sun conjunct the Galactic Center in the 11th means he will move closer to Europe. This is the trend right now, to strengthen Europe, not move away from it. (I will continue this thought in my next article on #Brexit and what next for Great Britain).

I warned Trump in my previous articles to avoid war. In Macron’s case, the warning is even more imminent; Uranus in 9th opp. Moon, square Mars in the 7th shows a warlike, combative personality, with er, foreign entanglements. He will also be in grave personal danger once he attains office so should be careful.

But really, transiting Sun also conjunct his Moon shows a new beginning for him tomorrow. I call Macron to win.

Marine Le Pen would have been a better president, IMO. It’s a pity that nationalism and populism always deteriorates into attacks on the other, so anti-immigration policies are now on the losing side. She must learn to become more adaptable and form allies, but she’s a fixed sign Leo, which like with Trump’s Leo Ascendant wants to win, not compromise.

There were the earlier people who flew through the stars to come here. There were those who died in the war and incarnated here on Earth. And there are those who went into a deep sleep as the Dimensional Shift took place, and woke up again here on Earth. These last voyagers, 250,000 or so who’d survived the War between Atlan and Aergon, are the ones who now feel most out of place~

I understand that many people may find the whole body of ideas proposed here in these pages to be just a little.. way out there. I propose they read what I have to say as fiction, and for a writer like me, that will be enough, that people read. Maybe they’ll change some of their ideas, maybe not. I’m reaching the one person to whom this will mean the world, maybe I’ll reach the whole world, one person at a time. I dunno.

In my practice I’ve always been intrigued by the hidden memories that lead to illness, the archetypes of Astrology and Numbers that help us understand our human strengths, foibles, and personality, the psychic sense that is disguised as emotional sensitivity, the past life experiences we repeat over and over again.

I have met many exceptional people in my life. You are all exceptional, in God’s eyes, but some of you are also, aliens, exceptional in what you do and the difference you have made or will make in people’s lives. You are incomplete, waiting to be reborn. You may belong to distinct psychological mental types based on whether you are an Atlanian, Aergonian, Atlantean or Lemurian. Or just contain the gene stock. A way of thinking. Being called to greatness. A psychological dislocation.

Atlanians from the planet Atlan are usually tall, thin, with great spirit, charisma and presence.

Aergonians from Aergon are usually shorter, but muscular and possessing great powers within themselves.

Atlanteans are the descendants of the Atlanians, come from Atlantis, love machinery and science. Cerebral. Their empire was in the Atlantic, then central Asia.

Lemurians are referred to in the Vedas as the darker skinned native peoples of the empires the Aryans came into conflict with. Based in the Pacific, they were the shamans who carved and shaped energy.

Their lives form our myths, legends and history. Bach, Michelangelo, Paramahansa Yogananda, Muhammad, Joan of Arc, Jesus, Einstein, Mary the mother and Mary the wife of Jesus, Che Guevara, Deganawida, Thoth, Athena, Pythagoras, Genghis Khan, all were these beings who came amongst us to change our direction.

Here is their message:

We walk amongst you every day. We, the people who came to Earth eons ago and are born again and again. Our technology is buried deep within our memories, our philosophy governs our very lives, our actions follow the imperatives of our forgotten past.

A light goes off in your head, and you discover the cure for cancer. You see a loved one you had loved centuries ago in the smile of a child. You remember who you were, and your path in life. A piece of music reminds you of a voyage amongst the stars. A voice speaks to you from within a darkened cave.

Yet the pain of knowing, but not knowing: you may have done good, or evil. You do not belong on this plane. You come from somewhere far away, and this is not your home.

My early childhood memories were of flying through the Void in a spaceship, and we are visited by them still, but not in the manner you see in movies, flying saucers and little green aliens inserting probes up our orifices. They fly to us not through space but the space between spaces. They speak to us from within our minds.

So you may or may not be an alien. What is really important is that you know who you are, and what your karma is from previous lives, and what you must learn now. Your memories may take you back to Atlantis or Lemuria, or you carry a void within yourself as you spend your life trying to discover the great mysteries. Earlier, I described the great library where all the knowledge of the world was stored. Let me tell you this: the solutions to all the problems of the world lie within us. The environment, poverty, and health can be resolved. It has been done before, it can be done again. We can live fuller lives. We, and not space aliens, can do all this.

But “aliens” do exist. They do come over sometimes, but not like the fake sightings we see in the papers. (Secret government technology) Nor in the ‘messages’ of peace and love generated by our own wishful thinking, not realising that promises of the imminent breaking out of peace and love everywhere only serve to distract us from the real problems and imminent danger we face right now. And our greatest danger is not from ‘outsiders’ of whatever’ shape, it comes from our own hopelessness and sheer time-wasting dramas.

It really is time to wake up. The people all over the world who will discover they are mages, musicians, and poets, inventors and leaders. Once, you were aliens. Now, this is your planet, and whatever you do to help change it will be as once was your path, and is again. You had the knowledge, you can receive it again. You lead, or followed once. You can do so again.

Joan of Arc heard a voice and the power to lead a whole nation came from within her. A nurse who went back to Afghanistan; a teacher who makes a difference to a child. Each of you has greatness within you. Find who you are.

A warning, which again you can accept or disregard. When you allow atrocities to happen, no one is immune from the consequences. Even to the richest and powerful, you will pay. Sadly, even the innocent will suffer, till you change.

I don’t write screeds or manifestos. These are warnings, based on the clear future I’ve been writing about for some time. Karma is inexorable for those who cannot change.

Recently, Syria was accused of bombing civilians with Sarin gas. Even though the State Dept. had confirmed Syria didn’t possess any CW, and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist Seymour Hersh said Turkey had transferred Sarin to their head chopping allies.

Even though an MIT professor and a lawyer whose PhD is in neuropharmacology wrote assessments based on evidence so far,

The media still blamed Assad for “bombing his own people” and Donald J. Trump, who warned against foreign wars, shot off 59 cruise missiles at the Syrian government anyways. Assad, who likely will survive beyond any of the US, UK, France, Saudi and Israeli leaders who wanted to take him down, was winning the war. Why would he weaken his own position by doing this?

Of course our leaders will argue their case for humanitarian intervention with passionate intensity. They have tried to topple any Arab leader who stood up to them, with disastrous consequences, each time. It’s not like they’re stupid, it’s by design. If we’re stupid enough to believe another WMD scare, more fool us.

This partial timeline provides evidence that the U.S. government and Obama in particular bear a significant responsibility for the Syrian war and the results of that war. Obama approved elements of CIA plans that go back over 65 years. The CIA meddling is distinct from the Pentagon’s failed plan to train “moderate rebels”, not covered in this timeline.

1940s and 1950s “…if you want to understand the origins of authoritarian rule in Syria today, it is important to go back to the 1940s and the 1950s and see the role the CIA played in that land.” See also here, p. 122: “In the late 1940’s, U.S. policymakers grew alarmed when the Syrian government, bowing to public pressure, refused to let a U.S. oil company build a pipeline through its territory. Washington also found the strong anti-Western sentiment and the large Communist party in the country ominous. Concerned that Syria was ‘drifting leftward’, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) laid plans to overthrow its three-year old civilian government.” CIA operatives met with right-wing military leaders in Damascus to discuss installing a “military-supported dictatorship”.

America’s unsavory record of violent interventions in Syria—obscure to the American people yet well known to Syrians—sowed fertile ground for the violent Islamic Jihadism that now complicates any effective response by our government to address the challenge of ISIS. So long as the American public and policymakers are unaware of this past, further interventions are likely to only compound the crisis. Moreover, our enemies delight in our ignorance.

As the New York Times reported in a Dec. 8, 2015 front page story, ISIS political leaders and strategic planners are working to provoke an American military intervention which, they know from experience, will flood their ranks with volunteer fighters, drown the voices of moderation and unify the Islamic world against America.

To understand this dynamic, we need to look at history from the Syrians’ perspective and particularly the seeds of the current conflict. Long before our 2003 occupation of Iraq triggered the Sunni uprising that has now morphed into the Islamic State, the CIA had nurtured violent Jihadism as a Cold War weapon and freighted U.S./Syrian relationships with toxic baggage.

During the 1950’s, President Eisenhower and the Dulles brothers rebuffed Soviet treaty proposals to leave the Middle East a cold war neutral zone and let Arabs rule Arabia. Instead, they mounted a clandestine war against Arab Nationalism—which CIA Director Allan Dulles equated with communism—particularly when Arab self-rule threatened oil concessions. They pumped secret American military aid to tyrants in Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon favoring puppets with conservative Jihadist ideologies which they regarded as a reliable antidote to Soviet Marxism.

At a White House meeting between the CIA’s Director of Plans, Frank Wisner, and Secretary of State, John Foster Dulles, in September of 1957, Eisenhower advised the agency, “We should do everything possible to stress the ‘holy war’ aspect.”

So, once again, US, UK, France, Israel, Turkey, Saudis, UAE &amp; Qatar Planned a Syria Coup and demanded Assad step down. They shipped arms raided from Libya to Jihadis in Syria, and Ambassador Stephens died in the fallout at Benghazi. I saw the waves of refugees pour out from Libya and Syria, and it is for this reason I said Obama’s “legacy” would be this, and, “Hillary Clinton would never be the president of the U.S”.

But that is just, political analysis. What I wrote from a spiritual perspective January 31, 2011, anticipating the changes to come in Europe, then America and the M.E:

We are seeing the failure of globalization and interventionist colonial wars. The US has become irrelevant. Europe is struggling to overcome its own financial mismanagement.

It is starting again, as it always has. The actions of a few, snowballing. Poland 1948, Hungary 1956, worldwide in 1968, and Egypt, 2011. The world is not coming to an end, it is a beginning. The next place where people will rise will be Europe, and then, America.

A quiet celebration with my family but what, exactly, is the point of Easter? Is it about belief or something more? Yes, there was an event once, with a mythical person or not (I believe, it happened) but the message is, as always in religion or spirituality, universal.

On a deeper spiritual level, only when we let go of our selves, can we be free.

Ego, the yellow chakra, the soul, is the sum total of memories, both this and past lives. Yet karma is inexorable and we are bound to and by it. How do we free ourselves?

Rationalists might believe our greatest instinct is self-preservation. I disagree. Our greatest instinct is the yearning of the spirit to free ourselves from the burden of karma. This is the purpose of all forms of meditation, to let go. For peace.

The ego, holds on to things. How we define ourselves, the past, our environment, upbringing.

Sometimes, we need to let go.

Sometimes, the sacrifice of self serves a higher purpose.

We are in the midst of the darkest age of all. Trump, war, the killing of innocents. The knowing pollution of the earth and its waters that give us life. The destruction of relationships and the loss of faith and idols with feet of clay. Should we all say there’s nothing we can do?

That is not an option. A bomb went off killing 126 Shiite villagers from al-Foua and Kefraya in Syria, including 60 children. A million Yemenis are facing starvation. Not just in the M.E,., but all over. Furies take over the world.

This is what we can do. Think beyond yourself. There is the meditation of contemplation, there also is the meditation of peaceful protest and action.

Yes, we get all bound up in causes. Yes, there often is a price to pay once you stick your head out. Do not be afraid, you aren’t alone.

Your religion, your faith or lack of belief doesn’t matter. Funny, I have met so many good people on both sides of the imaginary left-right divide, all caring about what is wrong about the world. About the environment, that war isn’t a solution but symptom and cause of our ills. You just have to care.

The key to it is a spirituality that goes beyond yourself.

That, my friends, is the measure of Easter. Not that we sacrifice ourselves, though all love for them that do for their causes, their beliefs, their creativity, their families and to help the ills of the world.

But, that you balance the needs of self with the needs of spirit, that you go beyond with acts of kindness and faith.

We have had worldwide upheaval since the Pluto-Uranus squares of 2010-2012, compounded by attempts to bring everything into balance since the 2014 Saturn-Neptune squares. People dying from war, refugees streaming into Europe, marriages and unions in upheaval. Now, with the people of the UK having voted to leave the European Union, time to ask what next? This was what I was writing, then the US bombed Syria. To the subject at hand, but remember, your country tried to pass a Security Council Resolution against Syria today. Karma will out.

Sometimes, Seeing The Future Can Be a Terrible Thing but I would prefer to talk about possibilities, not certainties. Yes, I’ve written extensively about the future of Europe, about the U.K., but always from a spiritual and historical perspective, pointing out that people have the power to alter their destiny.

This why I use astrology; to look at things from a slightly different perspective to try understand people, events, nations..

The horoscope of your birth shows your potential as a person, that of a nation its strengths and weaknesses, and future direction.

There are many National Horoscopes of the U.K. and Great Britain so it’s a question to decide which is the right one to use as a starting point. Some astrologers use the 1801 Acts but in my opinion that changed when most of Ireland withdrew from the Union.

Since the Scottish parliament has just issued its intention to request a referendum to secede from the Union it made sense to use the 1707 Acts of Union as the base line to see what next for the people of Great Britain? May 01, 1707 0:00 hrs. was when the two kingdoms became one. I also use the 0:00 time for the EU referendum chart. When you don’t have an exact time for an event the energy at the beginning of the day still tells a picture.

I used similar methods to make my analyses of the Trump win and his presidency, and the many articles about the future of America.

God Bless Scotland I wrote when the Scottish People voted to remain in the Union in 2014. “But watch out for shocks ahead”.

What’s Up With The U.K.? after the 2015 floods. “Wake up calls”, but also, “We are slowly taking back the world, one country at a time. My country, Canada, first. With leaders and parties who will be held accountable”.

After Brexit, What? written immediately after the referendum. I thought it was a mistake, and said so.

I also wrote “The British people have spoken. .. yes, voters have made their choice clear and I respect that. I also believe their vote, made perhaps out of fear and anger, was the right one. The Leave politicians, forget their xenophobic fear mongering, lied to them about the economic consequences of that decision, so yes, unfortunately, I expect serious fall out.

As the pound continues to fall the Bank of England may raise interest rates, causing hardship to working families.

Imports will cost more. And since the price of oil is set in dollars, gas and heating costs will rise.

The European market will be closed to British goods and capital flight will cause many European companies to move out. Americans will come in and buy your assets on the cheap.

Young people will no longer be able to work or study in Europe. Unemployment will rise. Your properties there and in the UK will lose value, your trips abroad more expensive.

You still have to pay EU fees and an exit fine. No ‘savings’ to save the NHS, that and the social safety net will be dismantled under the process begun under the Tories and New Labour.

Why, then, do I believe it’s the right choice?

I’m a spiritual person. I believe there are consequences to actions. Half a lifetime warning people and nations exactly what karma means and how, it’s a law more inexorable than gravity 🙂 so there you go.

If you look at my dozens of posts on Europe and the U.K. on this blog you’ll see. (Yes, many of their policies seem bad, but you really were and would have been better off with Europe. Only the America worshippers see otherwise, till you sign away your patrimony).

This is what war, invasions of other countries, and unfettered greed does to you, and if you don’t like the consequences, sorry….

And now, the U.S. Maybe you, too, need to learn the hard way. Perhaps it needs to get worse before you get shaken out your lethargy, in which case it’s a good thing.

Whither Goest Thou, America? And if you can’t decide, then maybe, you need a President Trump though honestly, President Hillary will be worse.”

And this is me, unfiltered: Don’t expect a better union or trade deal with the U.S. It will be an unmitigated disaster. They’re already aflame and will drag you down. The best deal was with Europe.

Now, to the astrology. The EU referendum chart Grand Cross creates immense stress; Saturn, the planet of karma in Sagittarius the sign of seeking freedom in the 11th house of friends and associations square Neptune in Pisces (illusion) and Chiron (wounded healer) in the second house of finances and emotional resources opposite Jupiter/Moon’s Node in Virgo (critical analysis tinged by emotion) in the 8th house of joint finances and inheritance, shows this was a decision made on hopeful delusion and optimism Brexit would make things better. It won’t.

This squares Mercury (communication) in the 5th house of creativity but also, gambling, taking a chance. Since this is a negative, not positive aspect, it shows the lies of the media, failures of communication, that led to this decision. And since the 5th is the house of children, you are literally poisoning the future of your children and subsequent generations.

Pluto on the ascendant shows the underlying, unresolved divisions in the UK made this referendum result inevitable.

Transiting Pluto in the 1st house of self expression and individuality squaring Uranus in the 4th house of foundations show further upheaval, as the shambles of Brexit negotiation shows. Uranus squaring Sun and Venus in the 6th house of health and employment since 2010 show why your declining figures there caused deep dissatisfaction with the current state of affairs. Perhaps you should have blamed the Tory government and not, Europe or immigrants?

Now to your birth chart, when two Nations became one.

Chiron in the 1st house shows the deep wound that this Union created and still carries. Culloden, the Highland Clearances. But Venus in the second shows your joint creativity made you the richest country in the world, and three planets in the 3rd trine Jupiter in the 7th shows your union was beneficial.

Transiting Saturn in your 12th house of restriction shows the problems ahead. Pluto in your 1st House of self-expression makes you er, obstinate but also, self-destructive. Squaring transiting Uranus in your third house of communication means others find you er, difficult to communicate with (and your negotiations with Europe will, sadly, fall apart).

I don’t have to remind you can always cancel Brexit. That’s your decision.

But if England leaves Europe, then Scotland must end this union, for its own good.

On the other hand, I believe that now, more than ever, we should work on all our unions, personal and external. Your marriages, your alliances. It no longer is a hegemonic world, nor can we be isolated islands. Russia and China, with far more sane leaders than the US, UK, and France axis, are building infrastructure into Europe and buying up sources of raw materials all over the world. Your children’s future belongs to Europe once you take the blinkers off. Decent jobs and education, health care, or, they can be unemployed or work at McDonald’s, your choice.

I have long and deep ties with the U.K. going back many lifetimes. I have great friends there and known how good hearted they are and yes, I am concerned for their future.

In Internet slang, a troll (/ˈtroʊl/, /ˈtrɒl/) is a person who sows discord on the Internet by starting arguments or upsetting people, by posting inflammatory, extraneous, or off-topic messages in an online community (such as a newsgroup, forum, chat room, or blog) with the intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal, on-topic discussion, often for the troll’s amusement.

In today’s environment, that means anyone who disagrees with your opinion 🙂

Or, you’re a “Hater Troll”: OK then.

Mainstream Media dislikes alternative media so writes about “trolls”. Twitter obliges by restricting users, which did wonders for its share price. That happened on Huffington Post too. Intelligent comment went to other platforms.

It goes without saying bullying exists on social media. That should be controlled through moderation and the ‘report’ button. There ARE rules and laws. But in a free society one should be also be careful about limiting debate.

Internet gadfly Milos Yiannopoulos was free to make Islamophobic comments and misrepresent liberal views on Twitter, because, free speech. He got banned because he made fun of a lesbian actress and seemingly defended pedophiles. I guess there are boundaries?

How researchers tried to understand one of Twitter’s oldest trolling groups
Abby Olheiser
March 2, 2017

Three-year-old Madeline McCann disappeared from a resort apartment in Portugal in 2007 while on a family vacation. Her British parents were dining nearby. The McCann disappearance, which has never been resolved, became a major British tabloid story. The daily media frenzy has since faded, but a decade later, a tight-knit group of Twitter trolls who are convinced that they have proven the McCann parents’ guilt in their daughter’s disappearance still discuss the case online every single day.

What you’ll see: a steady stream of chatter from a tight-knit community with a common goal. In a new paper on the #McCann group, Online trolling: The case of Madeleine McCann (Dr.) Synnott and his co-authors tried to shed some light on how this devoted, online trolling community works.

Highlights:

Case study analysis of Anti-McCann internet Trolling Group.

The role of language, group identity and in group cohesion is examined.

Language is central to Anti-McCann group in the construction of identity.

Several strategies were employed by Anti-McCanns to provoke outsiders.

Support for previous research linking trolling to western media culture and ASPD.

——–

This report, also carried in Nature, received widespread media coverage. The lead psychologist Dr. Synnott said he’d also be studying “the pro-McCann group”. Ahem, one side is a “trolling group”, the other side just has a point of view?

I was intrigued because I’d been involved in a similar group for many years, who discussed the murder of Meredith Kercher. It actually started at the same time as the McCann group and yes, there are similarities between the cases. No, we don’t discuss the case “every single day” but we did get fairly involved at the time. Not just on Twitter either, but other social media.

Yes, I’m a volunteer editor on the Meredith Kercher research website but also commented, met with and observed people in the McCann group as well as our own. I was surprised to read the psychologists conclusions. We have Anti-Social Personality Disorder?

I read the study and my response was published by the Washington Post:

“This study is a violation of the British (BPS) and American (APA) psychologist association’s code of ethics.

– The purpose of these codes of conduct is to protect research participants, the reputation of psychology and psychologists themselves.”

– Moral issues rarely yield a simple, unambiguous, right or wrong answer. It is therefore often a matter of judgement whether the research is justified or not. For example, it might be that a study causes psychological or physical discomfort to participants, maybe they suffer pain or perhaps even come to serious harm.

– Debrief
After the research is over the participant should be able to discuss the procedure and the findings with the psychologist.

– Protection of Participants
Researchers must ensure that those taking part in research will not be caused distress. They must be protected from physical and mental harm. This means you must not embarrass, frighten, offend or harm participants.

– Deception
This is where participants are misled or wrongly informed about the aims of the research. Types of deception include (i) deliberate misleading, e.g. using confederates, staged manipulations in field settings, deceptive instructions; (ii) deception by omission, e.g., failure to disclose full information about the study, or creating ambiguity.

– Note:
The post grad researcher set up a Twitter account, did not reveal their identity or purpose of the study, reveal their findings to those who responded, and simply deleted their account afterwards.

– The title “Online trolling: The case of Madeleine McCann” is unprofessional and inflammatory.

– “Case study analysis of Anti-McCann internet Trolling Group” characterizes a whole group of people as socially maladjusted and opens them to ridicule.

The psychologists hid their tweets so their data couldn’t be verified but actively tried to locate individuals who wished to remain private. They deliberately provoked by quoting a bad ‘scientific’ report to get the response they wanted, and used other underhanded methods to prove their thesis. I was able to obtain copies of their work which shocked me.

Psychologists already have a bad reputation for writing papers supporting torture (enhanced interrogation), posing for the media, and attaching unfounded opinions about the psychology of celebrities, or even, Donald Trump. You simply can not use your credentials to diagnose a pathology without examining the individual. Diagnosis by tweet is bad enough, but their assessment didn’t even match up with the people I came to know.

It turned out that in both cases, those who supported the Italian and Portuguese justice system (and disagreed with US and UK media PR led efforts on behalf of Amanda Knox and the McCanns) immediately were labelled ‘trolls’ and a number of journalists and psychologists rushed in with those assessments, without even learning the facts of the case. John Jay college psychology professor Saul Kassin still repeats the lie that Amanda Knox was interrogated for 50 hours over 4 days, even though he was told it was incorrect.

The Knox and McCann families hired PR firms who used social media to out anonymous people who commented on the case, and the media leaped in, leading to tragedy.

Brenda Leyland:

She was an English woman who made thousands of tweets discussing the case, none of which were abusive. (I know, I saw them). Complaints were made but the police found nothing wrong with them. Gerry McCann called “for an example to be made” so Brenda Leyland was confronted at her home by Rupert Murdoch’s Sky News reporter Martin Brunt and her picture published on the front page of UK newspapers as “The Face Of A Troll”. Hounded by the media, this vulnerable woman committed suicide.

When confronted, the reporter Martin Brunt I wouldn’t say who gave him the report filed with the police, then, “A group of ‘concerned’ internet users”. (The McCann group of not trolls).

Challenged again who gave him her address, replied Martin Brunt II “Nobody. I found it from public information sources”. OK.

Karma is inexorable. The Portuguese Supreme Court ruled that police detective Goncalo Amaral was free to publish his book containing his opinion Madeleine McCann hadn’t been abducted but died in her holiday apartment and the parents were guilty of neglect. Amanda Knox and Raffaele Sollecito were found guilty of lying in their alibis and even that they were present during the murder, but acquitted anyway since the case against them ‘couldn’t be proven’. Strange, that, but neither they nor the McCanns were exonerated.

Thanks to the dedicated volunteers at the Meredith Kercher and Madeleine McCann sites, the truth will always be out there, no matter what the media says.

On Motivation:

Nothing motivates people more than the quest for justice. Be it the crimes of states, corporations or individuals, people do care about getting to the truth.

Social media is a great leveller. People know the media and their political leaders will never hear their voice, and, lie with impunity. But in a medium where people can express themselves, that, is the greatest experiment in democracy. No wonder the media, PR fronts, and the elite hate and try to subvert it.

The actions of many people coming together, for social, political, spiritual causes, instigates change.

Then ah, I see it comes from the 1971 Joseph Losey movie adaption of the novel, with Julie Christie and Alan Bates. No wonder I remembered it, with visual evocations of revisiting the past.

I think of Pakistan, and the memories of childhood. Yes, I travelled widely and each country I’ve been to evoked memories of past lives. Yes, I love Japan, and the U.K. the U.S. and especially my home, Canada, for memories of friends and events, natural beauty and wonderful history.

But there will always be a special place in your heart for the place where you were born, and here it is Pakistan.

This is about identity, and how I want my children to learn theirs.

There is history, culture, religion even if you think of yourself as an outsider sometimes. You can still love it and want to take your children back there to visit.

This is about the uprootedness of the Pakistani diaspora and how no matter how much we settle elsewhere, a part of us always looks back to remember ‘home’.

Yes, we are defined by our history, and ours is one that goes back 5000 years.

The Indus valley civilization, Mohenjo-Daro existed at the same time as the Mesopotamian, Minoan Crete, Egyptian and Peru’s Norte Chico civilizations. They were a peaceful, pastoral people and that is who we are also, regardless the number of invaders who went through our lands and yet we absorbed them all. That is why Sunni Islam is tempered by a very strong Sufi traditions which no manner of fundamentalism can ever break.

We are defined by geography, from the plains of the Punjab, mountains of “Afghania”, Valleys of Kashmir, rivers of “Sindia”, deserts and hillsides of Balochistan. Therefore, Pakistan is a not just a culture of many peoples, but place.

With all respect, we are not like Indians. They have a different geography of place and mind.

I had thought how much I’d love to take my family there. My children need to see who they are as well as their other side. But the past is another country, and maybe one can’t go back.

Maybe, you can’t go back. Except through your remembered past, with a book.

A Federal Judge has issued a temporary halt to Donald Trump’s controversial “Muslim Travel Ban”. This is the first of a series of mistakes he will make throughout his presidency. Which, whether you like it or not, will continue for two terms. Like it or not, he is your duly elected president.

I analyzed his inauguration chart which showed what would happen in his 1st hundred days: A deeply divided nation, efforts to undermine his presidency, a foreign crisis he must avoid at all costs. That he should focus on the economy, and get good, not self serving advice. That he would get legal opposition for his actions. He must cooperate with people, not try to bulldoze them over, or they would unite against him. I guess he wasn’t listening 🙂

I’ve been told as a “spiritual” person I write quite a bit about politics but really, everything I write is through a spiritual prism. Noting the imbalances in the world; what could be more spiritual than that?

But not separately, which is the divisiveness of identity politics we’ve allowed to take over. And not that I am particularly concerned about the antics of Alt Reich dummies doing Nazi salutes or Antifa protesters setting fire to trash cans or throwing bricks through windows. I’m interested in what the rulers are doing. Someone said this about power, that while we react to what they did yesterday, they’ve moved on to their next step. I prefer to see where they’re going, and write about what they’ll do next. In other words, prophecy.

Yes, I think the anti-war movement is the moral cause of our time. Attacking refugees and people fleeing those wars on the basis of their religion and national origin, even cancelling the visas of 100,000 people and preventing legal residents from returning home caused outrage and many people to feel ashamed for their country. Decent people all rushed to help. They protested in the thousands at airports and lawyers met incoming travellers to offer free legal services.

Helping others, is a spiritual thing.

Helping to heal the planet, is a spiritual thing.

But I said this about Obama in 2008, that this was America’s last chance. And now I say this about Trump: you will have to go so far back before you can go forward. It isn’t even about the man. It’s about you.

The Democrats are so hapless they won’t regain Congress. Not unless they reform. Liberals who didn’t speak up and put their bets on a bad choice: you could have had Bernie Sanders, you got Donald Trump instead. Those are the consequences. Politically, you cannot regain what you lost until you learn to listen to the concerns of real people. Politically, not until a third party that embraces real populism, not corporatism. Nancy Pelosi, leader of the Congressional Democrats said, “we’re capitalists. That’s the way it is”.

When President Trump issued his order last week banning travellers from seven Muslim majority countries (even visa holders and permanent residents were turned back) Canada offered to take them in.

When we saw the waves of refugees from the Middle East we opened our doors, as we did to Vietnamese and Somalis.

The Islamophobic tendencies that started in America after 9/11 (and spreading to Europe) led to the latest outrage when White Nationalist Alexandre Bissonette opened fire in a Quebec City mosque, killing 6 and wounding 8. Oddly, a mosque in Texas was burned down the day before. Americans raised a million dollars to help rebuild it and a local synagogue shared their space to let them continue to worship. Many Christians and Jews reached out.

That was what Canadians sought to do. Thousands gathered at memorial services across the country, including Mr. Trudeau on Monday. Speaking earlier to Parliament, he addressed the more than one million Muslim Canadians: “Thirty-six million hearts are breaking with yours,” he said, referring to the population of Canada. “Know that we value you”.

Canada is not perfect; it, too, has its demons, as Mr. Couillard said. But the response of a democratic society must be to reaffirm its fundamental faith in freedom, including the freedom to practice one’s faith and cultural traditions. In Quebec, the demons took a terrible toll, but the country’s commitment to inclusion was, if anything, strengthened.

In the wake of President Trump’s attempt to capitalize on fear, Trudeau issued this powerful statement on Twitter and creating the wonderful hashtag #WelcometoCanada

The world has reacted with fear, and, more anger in response to Donald Trump’s win. This is not the way.